LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Two more pharmaceutical companies are objecting to Nebraska’s use of lethal injection drugs that may have come from them as the state prepares to execute its first inmate in nearly 21 years.

Representatives of Sandoz Inc. and Hikma Pharmaceuticals sent letters late last month urging state officials to return their drugs for a refund or provide assurances they won’t be used in executions.

Company spokespeople said Thursday they have not confirmed whether Nebraska’s corrections department has obtained their products. It’s also not clear whether they’ll pursue a legal challenge that could derail the scheduled Aug. 14 execution of Carey Dean Moore, although one of the companies reserved the right to do so.

Sandoz and Hikma are among several manufacturers of drugs that are part of Nebraska’s lethal injection protocol.

State officials have refused to identify the supplier and filed an immediate appeal after a judge ordered them to release public records that would reveal the source. A Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a phone message or email request for comment on the letters.

A Sandoz executive said attempts to use the manufacturer’s drugs in executions run afoul of the company’s mission of promoting public health, damages the company’s reputation and exposes it to risks including lawsuits and a potential backlash from shareholders.

“Sandoz should not be forced against its business interest and business plan to suffer financial loss because a state wishes to misuse medicines for the unauthorized purpose of a lethal injection,” Michelle Quinn, the company’s North American vice president and general counsel, said in a letter to state officials.

Quinn said the company reserves the right “to take necessary legal action” to ensure its medicines are used properly.

A Hikma executive said it has enacted policies to keep its drugs out of the hands of corrections departments for use in lethal injection, but state officials keep trying to get them through middlemen.

“Not only is this contrary to our intention of manufacturing the product for the health and well-being of patients in need, it is also completely counter to our company values,” Executive Vice President Daniel Motto said in the letter.

Hikma spokesman Steve Weiss said the company sends a similar letter annually to governors, attorneys general and correction department directors in every state that allows capital punishment.

“Our first and foremost concern is that it’s against our values of making quality medicines that help improve and save lives,” Weiss said.

Drugmaker Pfizer has sent a similar letter to Nebraska officials. State Sen. Ernie Chambers, a staunch death penalty opponent, is urging the company to do more to intervene.

“The matter before us is too grave to allow for verbal pussy-footing,” Chambers said in a Wednesday letter to the company.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska residents who use the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace for health insurance could see a much smaller rate increase in 2019 compared to previous years.

Health insurer Medica says it is seeking a 3.7 percent increase in rates next year, which is sharply lower than in the past. Premiums for the state’s lone Obamacare insurer rose 31 percent last year and 53 percent in 2016. The new proposed rates were published Monday by the Nebraska Department of Insurance.

Medica vice president Geoff Bartsh says the rate adjustment is smaller because premiums have caught up to growing medical expenses.

Nearly 90,000 Nebraska residents purchase health insurance through the marketplace. Medica is also proposing to reduce rates on its Medica with CHI Health insurance, which is available in 23 eastern Nebraska counties.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has been found dead in the Douglas County Courthouse in downtown Omaha.

Authorities say another judge found the body of District Judge Mark Ashford in his chambers around 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says a preliminary investigation found no signs that any crime was involved.

Brother Brad Ashford, a former congressman, says the 66-year-old judge has had heart problems but had been doing better in recent years. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

Judge Peter Bataillon was a close friend and told the Omaha World-Herald Mark Ashford “had a great demeanor in and out of court. He always wanted to make sure he did the right thing.”

MADISON, Neb. (AP) — A man accused of stabbing to death a neighbor in northeast Nebraska has been ruled incompetent for trial.

Madison County District Judge Mark Johnson issued the ruling Wednesday regarding 49-year-old Rodolfo Castaneda-Morejon. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and use of a weapon in the slaying of 39-year-old Yosvanis Velazquez Gomez on Aug. 25 at a Norfolk apartment complex.

Johnson ordered that Castaneda-Morejon will be taken to the state psychiatric hospital in Lincoln for treatment aimed at restoration. A status hearing is set for Aug. 7.

Court records say Castaneda-Morejon told investigators he confronted Velazquez Gomez about an inappropriate text message sent to Castaneda-Morejon’s girlfriend, suspecting the two were having a secret relationship. The records also say Castaneda-Morejon acknowledged stabbing Velazquez Gomez several times.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A student who attempted to sexually assault a teacher in western Nebraska has been given a year and 225 days on probation.

The Scottsbluff Star-Herald reports the teenager has been ordered to complete treatment at a therapeutic group home.

The boy admitted to a charge of attempted sexual assault after prosecutors dropped two related charges. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.

The boy was arrested Nov. 20, a few blocks from Gering High School in Gering. Court records say the boy used a pocketknife to menace the teacher before her class began, telling her to take off her clothes. She shoved him and ran to another classroom. The boy chased her and groped her and then ran from the school. The teacher was not injured.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Attorneys for the Trump administration were due in a Montana courtroom Thursday to defend the disputed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline against environmental groups that want to derail the project.

The 1,179-mile (1,800-kilometer) line proposed by TransCanada Corporation was rejected in 2015 by former President Barack Obama because of its potential to exacerbate climate change.

President Donald Trump revived the project soon after taking office last year, citing its potential to create jobs and advance energy independence.

Environmentalists and Native Americans who sued to stop the line have asked U.S. District Judge Brian Morris to overturn its approval by the State Department. They and others, including landowners, are worried about spills that could foul groundwater and the line’s impacts to their property rights.

But U.S. government attorneys assert that Trump’s change in course from Obama’s focus on climate change reflects a legitimate shift in policy, not an arbitrary rejection of previous studies of the project.

“While the importance of climate change was considered, the interests of energy security and economic development outweighed those concerns,” the attorneys recently wrote.

Morris previously rejected a bid by the administration to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Trump had constitutional authority over the pipeline as a matter of national security.

Keystone XL would cost an estimated $8 billion. It would begin in Alberta and transport up to 830,000 barrels a day of crude through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with lines to carry oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

Federal approval is required because the route crosses an international border.

TransCanada, based in Calgary, said in court submissions that the line would operate safely and help reduce U.S. reliance on crude from the Middle East and other regions.

The project is facing a separate legal challenge in Nebraska, where landowners have filed a lawsuit challenging the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s decision to approve a route through the state.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A grand jury has found no wrongdoing in the August death of an inmate who collapsed while playing basketball.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the grand jury report says 35-year-old Lucius Turner died last year at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln as a result of an abnormal heartbeat due to heart disease.

A criminal investigator with the Nebraska State Patrol testified that Turner had just made a jump shot, high-fived another inmate, and then collapsed as he went to sit down.

Staff called 911, began CPR and used a defibrillator before medics took over. Turner was later pronounced dead.

Turner was serving a sentence of 40-55 years for robberies in Gage and Lancaster counties.

State law requires a grand jury investigation whenever someone dies in custody.